Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s
largest maker of memory chips, said it aims to raise laptop
computer sales by 80 percent this year as it rolls out new high-end models.

Samsung aims to sell 18 million laptop computers globally
this year, compared with 10 million units last year, Kevin Lee,
a vice president at the Suwon, South Korea-based company’s
information-technology solutions business, said in an interview
on the sidelines of a media briefing today. The target would
give Samsung a 6 percent to 7 percent share in the worldwide
laptop market, compared with about 5 percent last year, he said.

Growth in global personal-computer shipments missed
projections in the fourth quarter as consumers held back on
holiday purchases and chose tablet computers such as Apple
Inc.’s iPad., according to the research firms IDC and Gartner
Inc. Still, the popularity of tablet computers will lead to an
“explosive growth” in demand for portable PCs, Nam Seong Woo,
the head of Samsung’s PC business, said in Seoul today.

While consumers hold back on purchases, businesses continue
to replace older PCs, according to IDC and Gartner. PC shipments
will probably increase almost 16 percent this year to 409
million units, according to Gartner.

Samsung will focus on introducing higher priced “premium”
models to lure customers looking for high-end devices, Nam said.
The company will start selling a slim laptop PC in global
markets in March, after its introduction in South Korea this
month, Samsung said in a statement.

The model, named Notebook Series 9, will be priced at 2.49
million won ($2,210) in South Korea, according to the statement.
The device is 0.64 inches (1.63 cm) thick and weighs 2.88 pounds
(1.3 kg), compared with the Apple MacBook Air’s 0.68-inch
thickness. Like the Apple product, the PC does not have a built-in hard drive and instead has flash memory for storage.